As Mark Waid’s Shazam #1 debuted earlier this year, Billy Batson received his second-ever name change for his superhero identity. First, Billy Batson would utter the magic word ‘SHAZAM!’ and transform himself into Captain Marvel, The World’s Mightiest Mortal. Then, due to some convoluted legal problems, the character found itself with a new name: the very trigger of the transformation. Now, Billy Batson turned into the the hero Shazam. Mark Waid took it upon himself to rechristen the character as simply ‘The Captain’.
Many have speculated that Waid’s decision to change the character’s name was long overdue. This is because of multiple reasons. The character was never able to introduce himself without risking depowering. The name also has a deeper connection to the character’s creators and its history, going back to the first pitch for the story, that would culminate in the creation of Captain Marvel.
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The original idea for the character was called ‘The Captain’
C.C. Beck and Bill Parker were the two creators who were tapped by Fawcett Comics to create their first comic for Fawcett Publications. Bill Parker, at the time, was a member of the New York National Guard, a reserve of military personnel. His time in this military branch gave him the idea for a character, one that he called ‘The Captain’.
Mark Waid, by renaming Shazam as The Captain, seems to have brought the character full circle, if nothing else, then in name alone. The character that was conceived by Bill Parker was very different from the one that we see in the DC Universe, given that it was not going to be one character at all.
The initial idea for the character (or rather the set of characters) was that each member of the team would have a demonstrable feat of strength, meaning there would probably be multiple characters that would have the same abilities. The entire idea had a very ‘King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table’ vibe to it. However, when Parker pitched the idea, he was told that the idea needed to be simplified. Hence, all the powers and abilities of the team were rolled into one character, the same one who would come to be known as Captain Marvel.
If Bill Parker’s original idea had been published, it would have changed comics history
While Captain Marvel did a lot of things that Superman would eventually copy (like how Mary Marvel would inspire Supergirl), the history of comic books could have been a lot different. For starters, THe Captain’s ‘team’ would have been a predecessor to the Fantastic Four and Justice League, which would have made it the first superhero team in comics.
Further, if Bill Parker’s team of superheroes had taken off in the same capacity that Captain Marvel did, it would have been possible that the company might have dodged the lawsuit from National Comics, perhaps never causing Fawcett Comics Group to shut down, and leaving another character out of DC’s roster of superheroes. Perhaps, the title of Captain Marvel would not be in the hands of DC or Marvel.
Further, with no Captain Marvel, characters like Marvelman and Miracleman would probably not exist, and hence the influential works of Alan Moore that defined the modern superhero landscape would be without a key work in its canon, alongside the likes of Watchmen and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
